The Anti-Defamation League has condemned a product sold in Urban Outfitters stores that it says resembles uniforms prisoners were forced to wear during the Holocaust.
The gray and white striped tapestry features pink triangles.
During the Holocaust, gay people were made to wear a pink triangle for identification purposes.
A letter from the ADL to Urban Outfitters President and CEO Richard A. Hayne objected to the “insensitive design and the company’s periodic use of products within the realm of Holocaust imagery.”
A request for comment from Urban Outfitters was not immediately answered Tuesday.
“Whether intentional or not, this gray and white stripped pattern and pink triangle combination is deeply offensive and should not be mainstreamed into popular culture,” said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman in the letter.
The ADL took the retailer to task in 2012 for selling a T-shirt with a star on its pocket, claiming the design looked like the Star of David symbol that Jewish people were made to wear during the Holocaust. The product “represents a new low,” the ADL said at the time.
Urban Outfitters has been criticized and even sued for selling other products, including designs labeled “Navajo.”
The retailer stopped selling a “vintage” Kent State sweatshirt that had what appeared to be simulated blood splatter on it last year after objections flooded in.
Kent State was the site of a 1970 shooting that left four students dead and nine wounded during a Vietnam War protest. Urban Outfitters issued an apology via Twitter and said the red stains were not meant to resemble blood.
